The Irish Open is shaping up for an enormous 2026 version, and far of that momentum is being pushed by a record-breaking on-line qualifier marketing campaign, led by Playtech’s iPoker community.
Alongside sturdy efforts from PokerStars and Paddy Energy, iPoker’s satellite tv for pc marketing campaign has been equally essential in driving gamers to Dublin this 12 months.
In accordance with figures shared with Poker Business PRO, iPoker is on observe to ship over 1,000 gamers to the €1,150 Predominant Occasion when mixed with entries from Paddy Energy. That alone would characterize one of many largest single-network contributions to the Irish Open area.
“[Our] Irish Open marketing campaign is smashing all information and we’re realistically trying to ship greater than 1,000 gamers to the Predominant Occasion with iPoker+PaddyPower entries mixed,” an iPoker spokesperson informed Poker Business PRO.
File-Breaking Satellite tv for pc Marketing campaign for iPoker
The size of iPoker’s marketing campaign this 12 months has been exhausting to overlook. The community started working qualifiers sooner than traditional, kicking issues off in November, nicely forward of its typical January marketing campaign.
“We kicked off the 2026 marketing campaign earlier this time, beginning community qualifiers in November 2025 as a substitute [of] the standard January 2026,” the spokesperson informed PRO.
That early begin, mixed with sturdy help from skins throughout the community, has paid off in an enormous means.
A complete of 29 manufacturers took half within the marketing campaign, initially guaranteeing 200 packages and 150 Predominant Occasion seats. By the point qualifiers wrapped up, these numbers had been comfortably overwhelmed.
In whole, iPoker awarded 429 packages, greater than double the unique assure, together with 309 Predominant Occasion seats. Altogether, that interprets to 738 entries into the Predominant Occasion, contributing a minimum of €738,000 to the prize pool.
The community additionally ran satellites for the Mini Irish Open, producing an extra 153 entries.
In comparison with final 12 months, the expansion is hanging. In 2025, iPoker certified 376 gamers to the Predominant Occasion, that means this 12 months’s marketing campaign has successfully doubled its output.
iPoker additionally revealed that whole buy-ins throughout all satellite tv for pc steps are anticipated to exceed €2 million, placing this among the many largest on-line satellite tv for pc campaigns ever run on the dot-com market, second solely to GGPoker’s WSOP qualifiers.
Past the Community
Importantly, these figures solely mirror iPoker’s network-wide marketing campaign. Particular person operators have additionally been working their very own promotions, including much more gamers to the sector.
Flutter model Paddy Energy, for instance, has already generated over 150 extra entries via non-public satellites, with that quantity anticipated to develop additional throughout the sequence.
One other fascinating takeaway is the worldwide attain of the marketing campaign. Greater than 60% of buy-ins got here from markets exterior the UK and Eire, although on-line poker in Eire nonetheless noticed notable participation, alongside sturdy contributions from operators akin to Bet365, BetSafe, Coolbet, Fortuna, Boyle, Grosvenor, Holland On line casino, Paddy Energy, and Sky Poker.
PokerStars Nonetheless a Main Pressure
Whereas iPoker has taken the highlight this 12 months, PokerStars stays a significant contributor to the Irish Open area.
The operator is as soon as once more working a large-scale satellite tv for pc marketing campaign, although actual numbers haven’t but been disclosed. Final 12 months, PokerStars despatched greater than 800 gamers to the Predominant Occasion, and an analogous, if not bigger, determine is predicted in 2026.
When mixed with iPoker and Paddy Energy, the full variety of on-line qualifiers for this 12 months’s Irish Open might exceed 1,600 gamers.
That will mark one other document for the historic pageant, underlining simply how essential on-line satellites have turn out to be in constructing a few of poker’s greatest stay occasions.
forty sixth Annual Irish Open Kicks Off
Irish Open 2026 is now underway, that includes a schedule anchored by its conventional headline occasions. These embody the €1,150 Predominant Occasion with a €2.5 million assure, a €1 million assured Luxon Pay Thriller Bounty on the identical buy-in degree, and the €1 million assured Mini Irish Open with a €250 buy-in.
This 12 months’s version additionally stands out for the addition of greater than a dozen new occasions, a lot of that are debuting in Eire. The schedule spans a variety of codecs, together with a Blended 8-Sport Championship Excessive Curler, a brand new Girls Excessive Curler, a five-card PLO occasion, and the return of the favored APAT Championship.
In 2025, the pageant proved a significant success, awarding greater than €14.7 million in prize cash and drawing over 26,000 entries throughout round 70 occasions. The €1,150 Predominant Occasion set a brand new document, attracting 4,562 entries and producing near €4.5 million in prize cash.
